documenting my journey from a stable, professional career to a traveler around the world

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Day 107 - Sky Bar in Bangkok and Eating Roaches and Crickets

We spent the last half day in Ayutthaya at the Elephant Village and Floating Market. I showed the tuk-tuk driver the location of where I wanted to get dropped off, and he agreed, but ended up taking us to a different elephant village. Good thing I was already here before, or else I would have just accepted it, but I wasn't going to be fooled this time around!

After shopping and eating some of the local delicacies, we headed back to bangkok on a charter bus. It took about 2 hours to get back and it was already dark. We checked into our hotel and got ready to visit one of the highest bars in the world, and I believe the second highest in all of Bangkok – the Sky Bar at the State Tower of Lebua. This was the bar that was featured in the The Hangover 2, and I'd been wanting to visit it for a while now because the pictures of it looked stunning.

The drinks were around $15/usd, but I think it was worth it for the experience, views, and pictures I was able to take. It was located on the 64th floor of the hotel, and luckily it wasn't raining when we arrived, although it was sprinkling while we were standing around the circular bar. We went on a Monday, so it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be, and the douchiness factor was low that night as well.

Afterwards, we headed back to Silom in search of some insects to devour. It was one thing Maco wanted to try, and I wanted to redeem myself after chickening out the first time I came across it the last time I was here. We found the street vendor selling a variety of these crispy snacks, and she even offered us a free cricket to try! The last time I was here with my friend Quang, the vendor offered a bag for 30 baht, or a single cricket for 20 baht. Feeling cheated, we declined the offer. This time around, I took the free cricket like it was my last meal...OK not really, but a free cricket tastes better than one that costs 20 baht right? It didn't taste too bad, and I actually ended up swallowing the piece I bit into. We tipped the vendor 10 baht for the free snack and asked how much the huge cockroaches were...10 baht each. This would be the true test, as I have a deep fear of cockroaches whenever I see them crawling around the streets or on the walls... And this cockroach was no ordinary cockroach found in the United States... these were GIANT cockroaches, as you can see by the pictures below. They were probably bigger than the length of my middle finger!

Holding the cockroach in my hand was enough to make me squirm, but I kept my composure and bit the head off...held it in my mouth, and everything was ok until I actually tried to chew and taste the insect. It was DISGUSTING and I immediately spit it out. If ever you are faced with a food shortage and you only had the choice of eating crickets or cockroaches, choose the crickets...